Those close to the situation report Dean Wormer Wiley held a meeting with the band after their return from A2 due to numerous complaints about conduct on the trip that violated the band's code of conduct. He warned he would consider suspending activities and travel of the band or replacing its leadership if there were more reports of "gratuitous vulgarity, sexualized banter or joking, hazing, or other forms of demeaning conduct."

While band members refused to discuss specific details regarding what went on during the trip or their meeting with the Chancellor, those who did comment said Wiley laid down a set of rules including no hazing, no nicknames (commonly handed down to new band members at initiation) and restrictions on band-affiliated parties. Apparently Wiley wants them to go back to being plain ol' band fags again.

14 comments:

matsut
said...

At the risk of being branded as one thing or another by you troglodytes, I'll submit this: I first matriculated at Miami (OH) University, and I was a member of the Men's Glee Club - not a "show choir", just a men's choir, and a good one.

We had an informal football game against the male members of the marching band every fall...this was definitively NOT a sanctioned event; we even had to move the site twice to keep the game from being interfered with by University folk. We're talking for-real, tackle football with no pads, and every once in a while, people got hurt - in the three games I was involved with, there was an ACL tear, a concussion, and a separated shoulder sustained.

Now, I ask you: is this something that responsible colleges should put a stop to? Is it hazing? Or: is it just one of those ineffable things that makes the college experience what it is?

"One time, when I was at band camp" . . . who the hell knew American Pie was a documentary?

The article itself is great. Consider these quotes:

Nagy, special assistant to the chancellor, said: "If it was an instrument group, we'll act against the group, so if it was the tubas or the trumpets . . ." Group of instruments? What sort of depraved devices did the Badgers bring, and since when are the tuba and trumpet players the Caligulas of student entertainment?

"Eric Halverson, 22, fluegelhorn rank leader . . ." WTF is a flugelhorn, and how is it possible this guy is not the prime suspect for whatever happened? For that matter, what punishment could be more severe than making him finger his flugelhorn?

Note by the way that Halverson is a fifth year senior -- they red shirt flugelhorn players at Wisconsin? -- and clearly has a different view than the Chancellor. As he brilliantly explained: "we were all thinking that it was one of the more successful trips we had" even though "there were no injuries or arrests."

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